The Will Of Fire
by Indiostar
Summary: Modern day highschool AU. Follows mainly the Sannin and Naruto, dealing with friendships, teenage adventure, growing up, and the game of Water Polo. Focusses on the complex relationship of the Sannin and JiraTsu as a couple. An attempt at a sincere highschool story and what it's really like to be a teenager and the people you meet. Rated T for language and Jiraiya's naughty humor.


**So this is the first story I've written in a very long time now and it feels a bit weird to be posting again. This is going to follow mainly Jiraiya and Tsunade because they're my true OTP, but for now everything is going to be through Naruto for the most part. Also, the ages of the characters don't really match up to the story with the Sannin being seniors and Naruto being a freshmen with all the other characters in between, which means there's going to be some discrepancies with the actual story but oh well. For example Naruto's mother is still alive as well as Sasuke's even though they're older than the Sannin. Sorry if that bugs you but oh well.**

**There's no JiraTsu in this chapter but it'll come don't worry. And you may feel a little lost at times if you're unfamiliar with Water Polo, but I'll try and keep it simple enough for everyone to understand. This story is based on the people and things that I've experienced throughout my high school life so hopefully it'll be a bit more realistic than most high school fics tend to be. **

**I do not own Naruto or it's characters.**

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><p>Konoha High School wasn't a particularly large school, one could walk through the entire campus on less than fifteen minutes, but to Naruto's young eyes it was massive. It was only the second day of school, his second day as a freshmen, and he had a tendency to get lost in the decrepit halls of his new campus. Konoha High was over a hundred years old. It was exactly one hundred and five years old actually. It's age showed in the withering stone and groaning wood floors, but still it held strong. The pavement was riddled with fissures caused by tree roots from centuries before trying to crawl their way out of the ground. The fall leaves swept gently over the warped ground, carried by a calm fall breeze. There was something inherently peaceful about the ancient grounds.<p>

Naruto failed to find any peace in it though. He was too busy worming his way through the bustling crowds of students to notice. He cursed his small stature. It was impossible to get anywhere on time when you couldn't move through people. And it wasn't as though there were many students, if Naruto recalled correctly there was barely more than a thousand kids in all, but the hallways were just so damn narrow that it was impossible to get through them without ramming through people. He looked at his watch wearily, he only had a few more minutes left to get to class and he wasn't even sure where he was supposed to be at.

Farther ahead of him he spotted a mop of spiky black hair that brought a wide smile to his face. He hurried through the large group of chatting students in front of him to catch up to his friend, patting a hand on his back to get his attention. "Sasuke, what class do you have right now?"

Sasuke, a pale boy with stark black hair that swept just barely over his perceptive eyes, continued looking forward without acknowledging his colorful friend. "History."

Hearing this brought a sparkle to Naruto's eyes. "Hey, we have a class together finally. Is it with Senju?" He took out his schedule sheet to double check and make sure he was getting the class right.

Sasuke responded with a humming noise and turned the corner with Naruto close behind. "I think it's in junior hall," he muttered, to himself mostly.

"Eh? The halls have assigned classes?"

"Yeah moron, didn't you hear them talking about it at orientation? Why do you think all us freshmen have lockers in the same hallway separate from the sophomores, juniors, and seniors?"

Naruto clicked his tongue, not wanting to openly admit that he's skipped orientation in favor of sleeping in and watching Netflix all day. Sasuke already called him out for being lazy, he didn't need to arm the other boy with any more insult ammo. Sasuke had led them to the classroom, where they were greeted by the long-haired teacher with a warm and welcoming smile. They both took a seat in the middle rows, patiently waiting for the teacher to start introducing himself once the bell rang.

"Okay everyone, settle down now and look up here," the teacher half shouted to get the class to quiet down. He was a fairly tanned older man with long black hair. He looked to be in his early to mid sixties, but was obviously in very good shape for his age. He had strong features and was still quite handsome despite his age, but it was his bubbling personality that made him seem much younger than he actually was.

Once he'd gotten everyone's attention he clapped his hands together and grinned. "My name is Mr. Hashirama Senju and I will be teaching you about all the wonderful stuff about our past. I'll let you guys keep your seating for now, but I'll probably move people around within the next week or so after I see who's friends with who and split you up because I'm mean. Just a little bit about me, I've been teaching here for a good number of years now and I know quite a lot about all the stuff that's happened leading up to today. I've travelled around the world and have been to every continent, except Antarctica of course. I enjoy sweet foods, foreign flicks, and the musician Shakira. Now, let's start with a group project."

Naruto had already taken a liking to the cheerful teacher, even if he was a bit loud. He exuded such a laid back aura that it seemed impossible not to enjoy his company. Even Sasuke seemed to be smirking at the teachers silly remarks, and he usually thought people were idiots. They had been assigned in the same group since they sat next to each other and as they worked in their pods, Sasuke pulled out a thick packet filled with multi colored papers and at least a dozen different forms. Naruto craned his neck over curiously to see what his friend was filling out. "What's that for?"

"It's the athletic packet you have to fill out before you start playing sports," Sasuke said, glancing up only briefly to look at Naruto.

The blond had an incredulous look on his face. "You're doing a sport?"

"Yeah, water polo," he said with an exasperated sigh.

"Water polo? What's that?"

Sasuke stopped his writing to look the boy straight in the eye with a stern look. How could he be friends with someone so incredibly ignorant? He'd had to have heard him talk about water polo at some point in their friendship, after all. "You watch the Olympics, right?" Naruto nodded. "Water polo is that sport where they swim around with the yellow ball and shoot it into a goal. It looks like soccer but in the water and they wear those caps that look like they have half a whiffle ball over the ears."

"Oh, I know which one you're talking about now! But why are you going to play water polo for?" he said with a grimace.

A groan escaped Sasuke's throat, "You idiot, I've been playing water polo since I started middle school. Haven't you ever heard me talk about it?"

Naruto made a face at his friend's unneeded derogatory tone, "Well you're not exactly the type to tell me about every little thing that goes on in your life you know. Hell, how am I supposed to know what you do on your free time?"

"That, and you're an awful listener." Naruto only shrugged, he couldn't deny that. "Anyways, I'm playing so I can get better and beat Itachi when we eventually play against them."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you're brother goes to a different school than you," Naruto leaned back in his chair, ignoring the looks that his other group members were giving him for not helping with their mini project. "Why'd you bother coming here anyways? Isn't Ame High like, way better than this place?"

Sasuke frowned, putting down his pen to run a hand through his hair. He hated having to explain this over and over again, since Naruto wasn't nearly the first person to ask. His brother was something of a prodigy and was quite well known in Konoha High, since he had originally gone to school there. He transferred the year that Sasuke started, stating that Ame High had better opportunities for him both academically and athletically. True, it was considered a better school since it was in the richer school district that got better school funding because the more affluent locals of the area decided it would be more efficient to collect school tax dollars at a local level rather than through the government. They were right. His brother was a junior now and planned on finishing his high school career at his new school, and Sasuke had no plans to be there when he did.

"Basically I didn't want to start all over in a new school district. That, and I don't want to have to deal with going to school with my brother." Sasuke had neglected to add that the reason he didn't want to be at the same school as Itachi was that he didn't want to be compared to his brother, and therefore planned on making a name for himself without walking in his brother's shadow. It was bad enough that all his new teachers expected him to be like Itachi, whom they all adored. All anyone ever talked about was his amazing older brother, and while he did love and admire Itachi, he was starting to get sick of people trying to measure him up to the older Uchiha. But more importantly, he needed to beat his brother in the one thing he always lagged behind in, and that was water polo. For years he'd trained hard to try and surpass his brother, but every time they practice together the gap between them seems to grow. Itachi was not only a brilliant student, but also an amazing water polo player.

Naruto meant to delve deeper into what Sasuke meant by "dealing with his brother," but Mr. Senju had called the class to regroup and share what they had put together for their projects, effectively cutting Naruto off from his investigation. He had known that Sasuke and his brother were pretty close, so he was curious as to why he wouldn't want to be going to the same school as him. Sasuke rarely ever talked about his personal life, leaving Naruto to speculate everything he didn't know about the Uchiha boy.

Leaning over towards his friend, Naruto whispered, "Hey, where do you pick up one of those packet things?"

Sasuke eyed the blond carefully, "Why?"

"Because I want to play water polo duh," Naruto rolled his eyes.

Sasuke barely stifled his scoff, leaning back in his chair to measure up Naruto. He couldn't tell if he was being serious or if his friend was actually stupid enough to join a sport on such a whim. A few moments later, Sasuke sighed in resignation after remembering just what type of special Naruto was. The idiot would absolutely dive into something so blindly as this, why wouldn't he? "Go to the office if you're really that stupid," he replied stiffly.

Later that day, Naruto shoved his athletic packet in Sasuke's face, whining for him to help fill it out. "Just let me see your's so I know what they want me to put down."

"Go away," he shoved the shorter boy in the ribs to create much needed personal space between them.

"Come on Sasuke, I won't be able to play if I don't get this shit filled out," he continued, ignoring Sasuke's obvious protests.

Sasuke turned around abruptly, causing the blond to bump into him with a yelp. When Naruto looked back up, he felt a chill run down his spine from the intense glare that his Uchiha friend was shooting at him. "If you seriously think you can play this game, if you actually believe that you have what it takes to play water polo, then go watch the team practice today after school and talk to the coach. If you're just doing this for shits and giggles, then go away because I don't have the time or energy to deal with losers." Sasuke spun sharply and continued walking, leaving an awestruck Naruto in his wake. The blond could only stare at the other boy's receding figure, mouth agape, in shock at the threatening intent he saw in Sasuke's dark eyes.

It was decided then. If Sasuke thought he didn't have what it took to play water polo, then he'd join the team and become an even better player than Sasuke. There's no way he'd let that pompous asshole show him up, especially when he discounted Naruto's skills without even giving him a chance. If there's anything Naruto hated more than spiders, it was people that put others down before they even got to know them. Naruto had been subject to this treatment many times throughout his life, so he knew the frustration of being told you weren't good enough to do something or that your goals were impossible, and just thinking of it made his blood boil. He'd become the best water polo player on the team, in the league even, if that's what it took to prove his worth to Sasuke. And the first step to getting there was talking to the coach today.

School had finally ended and Naruto was anxious to visit the pool. The only problem was he had no clue where the pool was located. By his second day, he'd gotten a pretty good handle on where everything was located, the general area of everything anyways, but he still hadn't seen any sign of there being a pool. All the athletic buildings and fields were at the forefront of the school or to the side, and something as prominent as a large body of water shouldn't be a hard thing to miss. Where the hell was it then?

Salvation came in the form of a group of rowdy upperclassmen passing by Naruto as he meandered near the football field. The field was new, but the bleachers surrounding it were ancient. The seating for the field came in the form of massive steps compiled from chunks of stone mortared all along the length of the field, looking down just as an amphitheater would have them. When standing on the top-most level, one could view a scenic image of the bay accompanied by a forest of trees at its coast. The school had been built on the base of a massive hill, and the view alone made it worth the trouble.

The group walked past the bleachers and down a slope that was tucked next to the ROTC portables. Naruto followed them, knowing instantly that they were water polo players from the towels that were strung over their shoulders. They entered through a single, heavy green wooden door that had a broken kick board wedged under it to keep it open. Here, Naruto entered the pool for the first time since he'd stepped onto the campus and was immediately hit by a wall of humid dense air reeking strongly of chlorine.

The pool, a generous name for the decrepit pit of water that sat in the middle of the deck, was enclosed in a concrete building whose wooden ceiling held multiple gapes and dripped down cold liquid from above. There were steep, long concrete steps that acted as seating and overlooked the water, emulating the larger scale bleacher steps that overlooked the football field. The pool itself couldn't be more than 20 meters in width and was only seven feet deep at its deepest point. On each end of the pool sat a goal, constructed from rusting metal and a worn net.

The steps were covered with backpacks and gear from the players whose voices echoed in the small space. Dingy towels were hung along the green railing that separated the steps from the deck and on the side farthest from the single door entrance were giant baskets filled with bright yellow balls. Naruto took in his surroundings with disappointed eyes. The pool was not what he had expected it to be, to say the least. Though he wasn't surprised considering the age and state of the rest of the school. Still, he could see why people didn't even know this building existed since it was tucked in so well from the rest of the campus, snugly fit behind the main gym.

He dropped his bag on the highest step closest to the entrance in one of the few dry spots on the cold floor. There were at least 20 guys standing around, jokingly pushing each other and talking loudly. The coach was standing patiently on the deck next to a battered brown table that held a boombox, a few bags, and folders that Naruto assumed pertained to the team. The coach looked to be at least in his early 60s, wearing black shorts and a long sleeve t-shirt with the name of some water polo club on the back and had gray and black hair. Despite his age, he had surprisingly large calf muscles that flexed where he stood, which Naruto felt weird for noticing. They kind of stood out though, to be fair. He walked down the steps, careful not to slip on it's slick surface, to meet the old man. He noticed the bulletin board that hung above the table. It has pinned onto it a few newspaper articles about the team, pictures of the coach in front of him as well as a few other unfamiliar faces, and the name "Sarutobi" written out in pushpins.

The coach acknowledged the boy with a small grin. "Hi, are you hoping to join the team?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine told me to come by to check it out," Naruto smiled brightly at the old man.

"Do you have any experience playing water polo?" he continued.

"Well, not really. In fact, I didn't even know it was a sport until a couple days ago," Naruto admitted sheepishly.

The coach nodded, "That's fine, a lot of people join not knowing how to play. Are you a good swimmer?"

"Heh, I can swim fine, but I'm not the greatest."

"Well just know that this is a swimming game. You're going to have to build up you're swimming skills if you want to play."

Naruto grinned widely this time, "No problem! I can get better in no time."

The coach chuckled at his enthusiasm and placed a hand on the boys small shoulder. "That's good. We'll have you in shape and ready to play if you practice hard enough. I'm Sarutobi by the way. What was your name?"

"Naruto," he stated proudly.

"Okay then Naruto. I can't let you get in the water until you give me your emergency card, it's that yellow card that was in your sports packet. For now you can just watch us practice if you want and get familiar with the game."

"Sure, I'll get that card to you as soon as I can." Naruto walked back up the steps to the top level and sat down next to his bag, watching all the other boys get ready to jump in. He was a bit nervous about the whole speedo thing, even now he felt a bit uncomfortable just looking at all the skin these guys were showing. They didn't seem to mind it though, since they seemed so comfortable strutting around and talking to each other even though they were nearly naked. Naruto couldn't help but notice the bodies of the players. Every single one of them was in ridiculously good shape. Even the smallest guys had defined muscle tone, and each of them had characteristically massive backs that flexed with every movement. Naruto was somewhat envious of how natural it seemed to them, to be in perfect shape that is. He decided it was time to stop being so scrawny.

"Alright, start off with a 400," Sarutobi yelled from the deck, signaling that it was time for everyone to get in. One by one they jumped into the water and immediately started swimming laps. Naruto at least knew how to count laps, and a 400 was 16 laps in total. He kept glancing to his side, hoping to see one of his friends walk towards the doorway. He knew a few of his freshmen friends were planning on joining, but he didn't know how many of them were actually serious about committing to it. Even he, watching the team work out now, was unsure about whether he could actually keep up with all of this.

The boys were doing some kind of leg workout. He couldn't see that well under the murky water, but it looked like their legs were moving in circles underneath them. They're arms were up in the air and they were following the clock. They had already finished a rather intense swim set after their initial warm up and some of them were obviously tired even though practice had only been going on for about 15 minutes now.

A couple boys stood out in the group. The one Naruto had been watching the most was a tall one with bright white hair that was tucked into a green cap with a frog on it. He noticed the boy as soon as he walked in mostly due to his unusual hair. It was unruly and was tied back into a long pony tail that reached all the way down to the middle of his back, stoping between his shoulder blades, but more importantly it was a brilliant shade of white. The white haired boy was also the loudest one on the team, making him stick out quite a but, and even now as they were struggling to keep their arms out of the water he was laughing boisterously with one of his teammates. His laugh was quite distinct and echoed throughout the small pool. Despite his carefree nature however, he seemed to be having little trouble keeping up with all of the coaches workouts. No doubt he was a senior, and a good player on top of that.

The sound of someone walking in caught everyone's attention and to Naruto's surprise, it was a short blonde girl with a rather large chest that dropped her bags close to him. She huffed and dug out a swimsuit from her gym bag then hurriedly hopped down the steps. "Sorry I'm late Sarutobi, the line to get cleared was awful."

She ducked under the green bar and handed the the coach her yellow card. The older man took it from her and shook his head with a smile. "Took you long enough. I didn't think you were going to be playing this year," he said jokingly.

"Tch, it's my last year, you think I'd quit now?" she yelled back as she made her way to the boys locker room door on the far wall of the deck.

"Hurry up Tsunade! You better not take a long time to skip out on the swimming," the white haired player yelled after her as she slipped through the locker room entrance. He had a wide grin on his face despite his remark.

Naruto was confused. This was the boy's team, so who was this chick, and why was she in the boy's locker room? None of the other players seemed to question it, much to his dismay, and the coach was obviously okay with it. He wanted to get up and ask one of them what was up with her, but unfortunately he didn't know any of them enough to go up and start interrogating them.

The girl came out and had Sarutobi cap her before jumping in and swimming a few laps to warm up. The rest of the team had moved onto passing by now, but the white haired player from before simply sat on his ball watching the blonde girl swim. After she was done he gave her a wide smile and said something Naruto couldn't make out before beginning to pass just like everyone else. Unlike the others, they passed harder and with more ease, all the while talking to each other nonchalantly. It was obvious that they were good players, even Naruto could tell just from the way they handled the ball without having to put much effort into it. Naruto's blue eyes followed the yellow ball travel through the air from one hand to another with wonderment. It was unbelievable how quick their reflexes and responses were without them having to exert much energy at all.

They had gone through shooting drills, practiced driving in with ball, defending, blocking, and all sorts of other stuff that overwhelmed Naruto. He couldn't keep up with all the terms that were being thrown around by the coach and didn't quite understand what positions where which. All he could say at the moment was that you get the ball down the pool and put it in the goal, but he figured that was pretty good for not knowing anything prior to watching this practice. He was eager to start, but hesitant to jump into the fire, or water technically, so soon.

After practice had wrapped up and everyone grabbed their towels to dry off, the coach approached him. "So what do you think?"

Naruto laughed nervously, "I think this is a lot to take in."

"It looks confusing now, and the rules are a bit different from other sports, but you'll catch up as you go along. The only way to learn how to play this game is to go out and play. You need to experience game situations and learn to recognize what's going on out there. The more you play, the easier it gets." Naruto nodded in response. "Well I hope to see you in the water soon. We have practice every day right after school until 4:30. Until games start, which is in about a month or so, the captains may have you guys do dryland, but you'll have to ask them about that."

"And who are the captains exactly?" Naruto said while looking around at the players.

"Jiraiya and Tsunade, those two over there," Sarutobi said, pointing at the blonde girl and the white haired boy that Naruto had been watching before. Naruto huffed in confusion but said nothing.

"Alright boys, hurry up and get changed so we can finish on time today," the girl named Tsunade said loud enough to be heard by the team.

"Ugh do we have to do dryland?" a boy with, much to Naruto's surprise, shocking gray hair groaned out.

"Stop being so lazy Kakashi," Jiraiya said as he took off his speedo from under the towel wrapped around his hips, "none of us actually want to do dryland but you know we have to." He caught Naruto staring at them and walked over after pulling on his basketball shorts. "Hey, are you one of the new players?"

"Oh, uh, yeah but I can't get in the pool yet," Naruto stuttered back.

"No problem man. I'm Jiraiya, if you have any questions or anything feel free to ask me all right?" The taller boy was certainly friendly, Naruto noted.

"Sure thing. What's dryland by the way?"

Jiraiya finished pulling his hair back before slipping into a worn out Iron Maiden shirt, one with the album cover for _Number of the Beast. _"Dryland is just work out stuff, running, stomach workouts, push ups and things like that. It's only for an hour after practice, and we stop doing it once games start so we're not sore all the time," he explained. Some of the other players were already making their way out of the pool and waiting by the short wall outside. "Even if you can't get in the pool you can still do dryland with us."

"Alright, I'll join you guys tomorrow then, I didn't bring anything to work out with today," Naruto said as he followed the other boy up the stairs and out the entrance.

"Cool we'll see you then." Jiraiya gave him one last wave before jogging over to the group.

With anxious excitement gnawing at his gut, Naruto skipped down to the lower student parking lot where his mother had said she'd be waiting to pick him up. He could't help the childish grin he had on his face because for the first time in a very long while, he felt the unmistakable promise of something unknown, of life opening a new chapter full of excitement and opportunity. Something big was happening, the turning of a new leaf you could say, and it came completely unexpected for the fourteen year old.

His mother's bright red hair could be spotted from a mile away, even behind the glare and tint of her car window. Naruto threw open the door and flung himself into the seat, looking up anxiously at his flustered mother. "Hey mom, guess what happened today."

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><p><strong>I cut this off a bit short just as an introduction but I promise to add more soon. I would greatly appreciate it if you left a review to tell me what you think and as always I hope you enjoyed this and come back for more later.<strong>


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